Okay, let's start out by saying I didn't get as much done today as I had hoped.
In fact, it was a lot of trial and error on the gun barrels for the gun deck port, along with continuing with the construction of the gun deck gun port lids. But, if any progress was made it was in figuring out the right dimensions and make up for the gun deck gun barrels.
First the gun deck gun port lids...it's now just a matter of making them. :lol: No, seriously, after all the trial and errors of yesterday, I was able to pop out six assemblies in the time it took me to do one yesterday...at least that's some progress. Even still, as I went along I found it easier to use my monocular lens to thread that bloody little thread through those bloody little holes. Can't tell you how many times I tried using my usual clip on magnifiers like I did yesterday, but I finally saw the light...I couldn't see the hole and tip of the tread very well.
ops: Well, out comes the rarely used monocular lens, and Ta Da! Threaded the darn thing on the first try...guess it just proves it helps to be able to see what you're doing. :lol:
I also learned a better sequence for threading and gluing the laniards to get them reasonably lined up right over the gun holes. Just a matter of dabbing a bit of glue on the back side of the lower two holes so when I adjusted the thread it didn't go too fast and too far. Then I threaded the top thread in the hole below the water diverter...boy, what a difference that super duper lens made, cause now I could see the black thread against the black part, and the hole appeared easilier to see.
I then continued with the usual hinge assembly, and the monocular made that a lot easier to do too! Now it was just a matter of compensating for my shakey hands. :lol: Once dried, I did the touch up painting and cut the assemblies out. They went on like a charm on the hull, and before I knew it the first seven gun port lids were all in place! Now we were moving!
After they dried I touched up the edges with flat black paint and, while I had the jar out, I decided to finish up the touch up for the entire section above and below the gun stripe. Tell you what, that coat of paint makes a world of difference in giving the black area a smoother and neater appearance than when I left the printed black area unpainted.
Feeling flushed with progress, I thought it would be a good idea to start some of the gun deck gun assemblies before finishing up the rest of the starboard side gun port lids. The aftermost gun position apparently doesn't have a gun actually at that station because the real thing has a plate covering the hole, with that little red star in the middle just like the tampions used on the gun deck barrels. So, I fashioned the plate (seems it is just a tab larger than the actual gun barrel, since it covers the hole entirely, whereas the barrel just protrudes though that same hole) and installed it. It looked fairly realistic, I thought.
So, on to a gun barrel. Here's where the kit again departs from reality. :? If you use the kit barrel parts the barrel will stick out of the gun ports almost two times as much as it should. :shock: Rather noticeable error. So, I built a barrel from scratch (didn't like the way the card from the kit rolled anyway) using a 26# bond paper strip of the right width. I rolled it around one of my micro punches, the size just smaller than the gun lid hole, and got it nicely tight for about one and a half turns around the punch, backed up a tad, applied glue, and then rolled the glued section. When it looked like it was setting up right, I trimmed the excess, applied a little more glue to the edge and finished it off by rolling the punch with the little tube on the work table. Nice, tight and the right size! Here's where it got hairy...the darn little bugger kept jumping off of my work table as I tried to maneuver it for adding the other parts. Finally, it got tired of jumping, and I was able to assemble the rest of the barrel. I first tried using the parts from the kit. They have two discs that go on the end. One looks slightly larger than the tube of the barrel and the last is about the same size but has that red star on the printed side. When I used these parts, the first ring was not much different than the second and gave it a funny top hat look, rather than a barrel look. So, back to the micro punches...I ended up using a punch about 0.058 diameter and punched out a disc of card with it. I then used a 0.043 punch for the red star section, leaving out the rest of that disc part. Using these two new pieces, I assembled the new end for the barrel. When I applied a little glue to fair out the larger disc with the barrel, it took on more of a flare that the real gun barrels have, rather than the top hat look from before. I painted the dried piece, being careful not to paint over the little red star on the outside, and the barrel was done!
Well, that took a bit of time to work out, so I didn't have time to build any more of the barrels tonight, nor to finish the gun port lids on the starboard side. But, next session should move quickly (famous last words! :lol: ) now that I have the procedure worked out.
So, just a few photos tonight. You should be able to see the aftermost gun station with the plate and no barrel, and the next gun station with the new and improved barrel assembly. I hope the touch up painting of the black sections shows some improvement from the last posted photos...it does look better, trust me. :lol:
Well, off to San Diego for a few days for work, then I hope to be back Wednesday and, if jet lag isn't hitting me too bad, I hope to do a little more. Till then, hope you enjoy these photos....
Cheers!
Jim
